Electronic devices make use of both analog and digital signals. An analog signal is a continuous signal which may assume any value. A digital signal is one which may assume one of a discrete set of values. A signal may be in the form of an electrical current or a voltage. Electronic circuitry often includes devices for converting analog signals into digital signals and vice versa. For example, an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) is used to capture an analog signal and produce an equivalent digital signal.
Time-interleaving is the coordination of multiple lower sample rate devices to achieve a higher sample rate result. For example, some time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters coordinate the operations of two or more lower sample rate analog-to-digital converters to produce a digital output at a higher sample rate, effectively replicating the effect of a single higher sample rate analog-to-digital converter. Time-interleaving allows for the use of slower, less-expensive components to produce high sample rate results that are prohibitively expensive or otherwise unfeasible to achieve with a single component.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.